the ritual and calendrical practices of the Colossian believers.40 Parallels to Middle Platonic thought can indeed explain certain phrases and expressions in this letter, but we should not ignore the significance of the Jewish elements as noted above. The problem of attempts to identify the specific school of philosophy such as Cynicism41 is the lack of linguistic parallels that would secure such a link. On the other end of the spectrum, there are those who argue for a strictly Jewish